Author Of Adult Fiction

Minding Your Manners On Social Media

The writing industry is a profession. Granted, a very liberal profession with people who drink, curse, and know how to have a good time. For the most part we don’t have to put on a suit, or sit at the office from 9-6. It can be frustrating, scary, hard, and sometimes you just want to gouge your eyes out, and there’s a great support system for that. Still, when it’s called for, we put on our best dress, lift our chins, and handle the business side of writing–in a professional manner.

It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again.

AGENTS CHECK YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT.

Does that mean you should censor yourself? Absolutely not. Do you. Stand up for what you believe in, have your opinions, and yes, you can absolutely curse. No one is saying that any of this is wrong.

However, when you go on troll-like, life hating, drama inducing, crazy rampages–well it might be time to scale it back just a bit.

Not long ago, a person (we’ll call said person Blue) decided it would be okay to tell a certain contest host not only how to run their workshop, but that the way they were doing it wasn’t selfless. All because Blue didn’t like the idea of using Rafflecopter to draw winners.

If you don’t like a particular contest, how it’s run, or a workshop, there’s nothing wrong with that. No one says you have to enter. No one says you need watch the feed, participate in the community, or otherwise be involved at all.

Honestly, this can apply to life. Well most of it. Not talking about injustices or inequalities here, but for regular things such as if you don’t like the way someone runs a business–don’t shop there. If you don’t like the way a neighbor dresses, don’t dress like them. If you don’t like a persons life choices, don’t make the same choices.

Bashing people because they do/run/have a different lifestyle is unacceptable. Much like the world, the writing and publishing industry has many different paths, many different contests, and many ways to achieve goals. You may not like one path, and choose to take another. That’s awesome, but don’t bash another path just because it’s not for you. The same with contests.

The thing about the writing world? On twitter and basically everywhere else. It’s a pretty small industry and community. Feel free to disagree. We all have our own opinions. They aren’t all the same, and they don’t have to be.

Manners go a long way. In real life and social media.

Being rude, inconsiderate, and trying to publicly shame a contest runner by using popular hashtags, even though the contest runner didn’t do anything wrong, well essentially, you’re biting your nose to spite your face. More than likely, a lot of bridges will be burned, and you might even wind up blackballing yourself from a fantastic community.

And if you think that acting a fool on social media won’t make an agent turn you down in a heartbeat….well agents don’t want clients that are bullies and can’t act in a professional manner.